Royal Ballet Choreographic Affiliate Mayuri Boonham will present a new short work at Deloitte Ignite this weekend. The piece is influenced by Verdi’s opera Otello and Hindu epic the Ramayana, one of the great works of ancient literature. The work, entitled Forsaken, will be performed alongside a selection of free pop-up performances inspired by Verdi and Wagner that are taking place in the Paul Hamlyn Hall during the opening weekend of the festival.

Mayuri, who is classically trained in Indian Bharatanatyam dancing, says: ‘There are some fascinating parallels between the Shakespeare on which Otello is based and the Ramayana. The creative process is about finding synergies between two very different classical forms – it’s so different that every artist has been way out of their creative comfort zone!’

The work is set to arrangements of three extracts from Verdi’s opera(‘Credo in un dio crudel’, ‘Era la notte, Cassio dormia’,and ‘Ave Maria’), and will feature a veena (a traditional Indian string instrument), played by two Indian classical musicians, Hari Sivanesan and Deepi Sivasanthiran.